Esteban Ocon pulled no punches in his assessment of Alpine's performance at the British Grand Prix, insisting the team “took every single wrong decision” on all fronts from the beginning to the end of the weekend.
Ocon's struggles began in qualifying, where he only managed P18. On race day, a gamble on intermediate tyres during early rain backfired, forcing him to pit again for slicks.
The rest of the race offered little improvement, leaving him lingering well down the order at the checkered flag in 16th position and frustrated.
“There was no punt that we took,” he reflected on the tyre call. “We basically took every single wrong decision since the beginning of the weekend on anything that it can be – on the car, on the strategy, on everything.
“It’s been a very difficult one from start to finish, there’s nothing to learn about this weekend. We just need to focus on the next one and turn the page on this one.”
The poor result marked a significant drop in performance for Alpine after recent strong finishes. When asked why things went wrong, Ocon, who is leaving the team at the end of the season, remained critical
“Not much to comment on that,” he said.
“I can’t give you an answer but, yeah, when the track was suited for slicks we were on the inters, when the track was suited for inters we were on the slicks.
“When the track was suited for low downforce, we were on the high, and many more unfortunately. Not much to take away unfortunately.”
It was a dismal Sunday overall for Alpine with Pierre Gasly – who was set to start last due to an engine change – even failing to make it to the grid on Sunday following a gearbox issue diagnosed during the Frenchman’s formation lap.
“We knew our weekend would start on Sunday – the plan for the weekend was to take this engine penalty and the battery change, so it was compromised from the first place,” the 28-year-old explained.
“But on a day like today when the rain is around, you always have hopes that you can get something out of it.
“Definitely not an ideal [situation], just got to understand and hopefully make sure that we don’t suffer this issue anymore.”
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